


Another Time, Another Place

by kisahawklin



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombies, Apocalypse, M/M, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-06
Updated: 2010-05-06
Packaged: 2017-10-15 19:12:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/164063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/pseuds/kisahawklin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set in <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/meansgirl/pseuds/meansgirl">meansgirl</a>'s <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/89431">In Another Life</a> zombie apocalypse AU; a short John/Rodney piece of the puzzle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Time, Another Place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meansgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meansgirl/gifts).
  * Inspired by [In Another Life](https://archiveofourown.org/works/89431) by [meansgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meansgirl/pseuds/meansgirl). 



John's on the second floor, oiling his gun and looking out over the parking lot where a couple of the zombies wander from time to time. Usually they stay in a pack, but some of them get curious, or bored, or maybe are too stupid even to stay with the pack. He hopes it's that last, and not that some of them are smart enough to scout a perimeter or look for new ways in. He's seen this one guy before, big barrel-chested guy with half his hair burned off, and half-hooked overalls, looking like every nightmare he's ever had since tenth grade.

He keeps watching, carefully out of line of sight, and continues cleaning and oiling his guns. He doesn't need to be away often; he's a laidback guy, and people's quirks have always rolled off his back. Even Rodney's, and those are some epic quirks. He needs to think, though, because he's not really in survival mode anymore. They've run from place to place, killing as many of the things as they can along the way, and they have a system now. They're heading west, ostensibly, where the population thins out and there shouldn't be the kind of numbers they ran into on the East Coast, or even the Midwest.

He and Lorne started this gig together, longtime friends despite the whole superior officer thing, and they took care of each other, in all the normal ways. They watched each other's backs, scrounged for food for two, gave each other a hand when they need stress relief. They started adding people, Elizabeth and Ronon and Teyla and Cadman and Ford and Rodney, and it was still all fine, they were all sort of taking care of each other, except for the giving people a hand thing. John had always been weird about sex with women, but Ronon and Ford took care of that graciously enough.

Rodney, though, Rodney was apparently a romantic, because he wouldn't take anyone's offer (okay, Cadman might have been a little brusque, but Elizabeth was nice about it, and Rodney turned her down too). Teyla actually talked to Rodney about it, and it turned out he didn't want to mess around with someone he wasn't in love with. John could respect that, even if he couldn't really understand it.

He didn't understand it any better when Rodney pulled him off the puppy pile one night and took him to the back of the store, stripped him and spread him out on a sofabed and spent hours tasting his skin. John went with it; Rodney had been at a breaking point all day, snarling at people and swearing at whatever machine he had been working on, not taking coffee or chocolate from anyone and offering to take guard duty voluntarily, the gun clutched tight in his hands.

"I love you, Sheppard," Rodney had whispered, and John blinked and didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say. Instead he flipped Rodney over and got his clothes out of the way enough to suck him until he came, shaking, with a hand in John's hair and another holding a pillow to his face.

They continued on like that, Lorne backing off and starting a thing up with Ronon and Elizabeth until Radek came on board. Radek and Evan were as starry-eyed as schoolboys, and it gave John hope.

John snaps his gun back together and decides to go down to the first floor, to see if he can figure out what's catching reject from Texas Chainsaw Massacre's eye. He's halfway down the steps when he hears the sound of breaking class, Rodney's distinctive squawk of surprise, and immediate brain-bending diatribe.

"Get off me you overgrown Deliverance reject!"

Trust Rodney always to go for Deliverance.

John dashes down the steps and into the hallway below, listening for noises so he can figure out what shop Rodney's in. More breaking glass, and John rushes into the playroom for kids, through to the back where a breakroom, complete with coffee machine and toaster, has a window to the outside world. Malls never have windows on their backsides, at least not on the first floor; they should have checked this place out more thoroughly.

He runs into the room hoping that the noise hasn't pulled in any more zombies - the one huge guy is enough. Rodney's backed up, holding something in his hands, out of reach of the big guy leaning over the broken glass and into the room. John shoots him in the skull and leaves him there while he checks on Rodney.

"I'm fine," Rodney snaps, still clutching some piece of equipment to his chest. "Just get that boarded up before more of those things come."

"I love you too, Rodney," John says sarcastically, but remembering the way his stomach fell like lead when he heard Rodney's voice, he wonders if there isn't a little truth to it. A glance back at Rodney shows a fond but annoyed half-smile that means that Rodney probably gets it. John goes to the window to dump the Deliverance reject and start boarding the window before the rest of the crew comes running.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so [](http://queerlygen.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**queerlygen**](http://queerlygen.dreamwidth.org/) 's flashwork challenge #3 is zombie apocalypse. I usually try to write something for it. I was with [](http://gblvr.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**gblvr**](http://gblvr.dreamwidth.org/) and [](http://meansgirl.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**meansgirl**](http://meansgirl.dreamwidth.org/) last night, and [](http://meansgirl.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**meansgirl**](http://meansgirl.dreamwidth.org/) said she might try to write a bit of Cadman from her awesome [zombie AU](http://archiveofourown.org/works/89431) that she wrote for [sga_santa](http://community.livejournal.com/sga_santa) last year. And I thought that was a great idea because I loved that story to bits and pieces! So I decided I would write in it too, but the John/Rodney part, since, well, OTP and all.


End file.
